Mary Queen of Scots is tried for treason before a special commission at Fotheringhay Castle. Even since her flight from Scotland and imprisonment in England in 1568, Elizabeth had been pressed to have her executed, but the queen had always resisted, in part fearing the precedent for the legal killing of monarchs this would create. However, after a spate of conspiracies to replace her on the throne with Mary, culminating in the recent Babington plot, it seems that Elizabeth eventually submitted to the advice of her counsellors.